Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas

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Wilhelm Kempff is one of those pianists who became famous (along with Brendel, and a few others) for taking a much different interpretive approach to Beethoven's piano music than the usual blood-and-guts style favored by other performers throughout history (all the way back to Beethoven himself, so say contemporary accounts). So if you're looking for that kind of player, I would suggest trying Ashkenazy or even Schnabel.

This legendary pianist is of a different breed. Even in the big crescendos, one hears a sense of reserve in this man's playing that gives the impression of an introverted personality at work, although with absolutely no lack of expressive power or imagination anywhere. It is with much of the music in these late sonatas that this approach works particularly well.

One reason, is that these sonatas ARE more inward-looking and enigmatic than Beethoven's earlier efforts. While there are some real barnstorming moments throughout the late sonatas, they are largely surrounded by long stretches of introspective musical narrative, and moments of quirky abstraction. Beethoven was clearly exploring new territory.

Kempff's strength here, is that not only does he already have the personality for this kind of music, but his incredibly pure musicality and sense of improvisation make even the thorniest moments in these works actually sound...beautiful (not an easy thing to do).

My favorite interpretations by him have been the late Bagatelles (not a part of this set, but very worth getting), the sonatas 27 and 28, AND...the first movement of the "Hammerklavier" sonata (my single favorite recorded performance by this artist).

By now, you might have read another review, posted here, that discusses, and is very critical of Kempff's version of this sonata movement. The reviewer is very knowledgable, and clearly knows what Beethoven's metronome markings are supposed to be. In fact, every point made in the review is well-founded, and difficult to argue (if you haven't read the review, the main point is that it is played too slowly). Of course, most pianists (including people like Pollini) DO take the tempos in the faster movements at least a little bit slower than what Beethoven had originally indicated.

Kempff takes the tempo down yet another couple notches. The result is more of an Allegro Moderato, and a completely different feel than what I'd heard up to then by other pianists. It would be difficult to even describe the first impression it made on me. It was frankly, a bit off-putting until I got used to it. Then, over time, it completely won me over. It might be the first interpretation that has...

You see, I'd always had my doubts about the composition of this movement. There is for me, an impression of fragmentation of ideas/themes throughout the work's structure that gives me the impression of someone on an ill-fated hike through the woods, where one loses all sense of direction, and ends up walking by the same landmarks again and again. Themes seem to spring up repeatedly with too many of their original trappings, and not enough development, and even the fugue in the middle ends all too quickly to my ears. This is not the usual experience I have with Beethoven's music, the (for me) real master of organic structure among all the great composers.

Kempff brings that sense of the "organic" back to the music, not only by taking his time, tempo-wise, but by use of the most brilliant phrasing and pacing of ideas. Suddenly, this movement sounds not like a group of smaller events re-played again and again, but one larger unfolding story. Instead of a labyrinth that takes one through the same section(s) of woods, it now feels like one freshly-cut trail that goes ever deeper into the heart of the forest. If I could use use one word to describe the experience, it would be "kalaidascopic".

Beethoven was once listening to one of the most brilliant young pianists of the day play one of this works, and when she was finished, he said "If that is in no way what I had in mind as to how this piece should be played, it is perhaps even better. Please go on..."

These are revered works and Kempff's renditions have attracted equally reverential reviews by informed critics - for mine, this set is one of the best available. Having earlier acquired the entire 32 sonata edition, I purchased this hoping for improved sound quality from the new transfer - I was not disappointed. The sound is spectacularly improved. If you are thinking of buying these performances again for the same reason, then don't hesitate. Deutsche Grammophon have actually remastered the entire 32, and that set is available under 'Complete Beethoven Edition'. Also, aside from formal works on music theory, there is an interesting discussion of Beethoven's late sonatas in 'Doctor Faustus', by Thomas Mann.

This is one of my favorite albums. I could listen to it over and over. I wish that LVB could hear Kempff play. I would be surprised if he didn't approve wholeheartedly with the interpretation.

First of all: I have no professional insights into either Beethoven or piano. So take however many grains of salt you will to this amateur's review.

I had previously listened to Kempff's take on 4 of Beethoven's sonatas and loved it. Quoting my previous review concerning Kempff: "he is in love with the piano. He is communicating with it when he plays it, and you feel like eavesdropping when you listen to this recording. Seems like this guy will play things the same personal way no matter who is (or not) watching or listening." This still stands. Whatever Mr. Kempff played, he made it his own.

Bach is a bottomless well. It is rather calm because it is deep. He was a spiritual man, and had within him the "spring of water that wells up to eternal life". Beethoven is a mountain, firm, conspicuous, and holds undiscovered treasures, creatures, and dangers. Where Bach is deep, Beethoven is lofty. Beethoven's deafness, in my view, was a blessing as well as a curse. Seeing how his music and his person turned out, it appears to be more the former than the latter. It brought him pain and suffering, but also enabled him to reach a spiritual height that he otherwise might never have reached. This is why I chose to buy the "late sonatas", to hear his compositions when he had become more spiritual than passionate. Kempff's interpretations do not disappoint in this regard. He once again infuses meaning into these late pieces.

The booklet contains what Kempff wrote about each of these 6 sonatas. They were very insightful and helps you to understand where the performer comes from.

Sonata 27 - in Kempff's words, the remarkable simplicity of the melody is like a country girl, without cosmetics or extra bling. He is right. The melody is pure and hymn-like. The greatness of Beethoven is no less evident - it's always about the heart and not the technique. As Tagore says: "It is the most distant course that comes nearest to Thyself, and the training is most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune."

Sonata 28 - Kempff said that Hammerklavier was truly a beginning to the romantic age. I'd argue that this sonata, one before Hammerklavier, already predicts that. Certain phrasings have already departed and wandered far from classical realm and into what is distinctively romantic.

Sonata 29 "Hammerklavier" - a favorite of many, but rather new to me. Kempff wrote the most on this piece, obviously in awe of it and having reflected much on it. He called the adagio movement "unequalled" in all of piano literature. I truly appreciate how he made so much sense of the piece for himself, which helped to make it understandable to me. I cannot tell when something on the piano is superbly difficult or marvelously played (technically speaking). The piano, unlike the violin, can play so many notes at once. Kempff plays them in a way so that I can sense the mood changes, thought processes, conflicts and their resolutions rather than just hearing a torrent of notes.

Sonata 30 - another example of Beethoven with an inner conflict. Frequently in Beethoven piano pieces, sonatas or concertos, two melodies seem to engage in either love or war. They complement and compete at the same time. The rivalry has often been cited to reflect the artist's inner life. Sonata 30 illustrates that - more love than war, though, I think.

Sonata 31 - Kempff saw this as a personal confession of Beethoven. As usual he played it reflectively.

Sonata 32 - This is like Beethoven 9th of the piano sonatas. 2 movements. The first one is like the first movement of the 9th. It reflects the "human" journey of Beethoven. Expressed are the unrelenting hardships, fiery passion, lofty ideals, unspeakable loneliness and heroic efforts that make up the admirable Beethoven in the flesh. The second movement, as Kempff says, takes on 5 variations, as in a journey. Kempff called Beethoven Faustian, which I'd disagree with. Where Faust is defeated at the end, Beethoven is victorious. The second movement sounds more like a journey through the heavens. Or perhaps, a view of his life from a transcendental perspective.

In all this, I believe that Beethoven as a person did become more spiritual toward the end, perhaps much helped by his deafness. Kempff's interpretation certainly brings out that kind of profoundness and makes these sonatas understandable to me. I do like it very much.

It is hard to believe that Beethoven was completely deaf when he wrote what is arguably the best piano music of all time. Kempff is the supreme interpreter of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Even though this music was recorded a long time ago, the sound is quite good. A great pair of CD's at a great price!

Normally I only write reviews for CDs that I think very highly of, but I can't resist panning Kempff's CD-set of the late Beethoven piano sonatas: the performances are lack-luster, and the performance of the "Hammerklavier" is atrocious. But mainly I am writing because I strongly object to Kempff's patronizing comments in the liner notes about Beethoven's metronome marking for the first movement of the Hammerklavier sonata:

"The erroneous metronome marking can easily lead to this regal movement being robbed of its radiant majesty." ... "Beethoven was completely deaf by the time he wrote this work and had lost touch with the world of actual sound."

In the first place, Beethoven deaf could hear thousands of times better than Mr. Kempff with his full faculties. The quality of his aural imagination has never been approached by any other musician. And certainly not by Mr. Kempff. In the second place, Beethoven's metronome marking (cut-time, one-half-note = 138), though very fast, it what Beethoven called for, and there are really no valid grounds for disputing it. Indeed, when the first movement is played way too slowly by performers such as Kempff, the movement has no majesty, and is just plain dull and flat-footed.

I don't suppose it would be fair to say that Mr. Kempff formed his opinion of the tempo of the 1st movement based on the fact that he doesn't have the technique to play it up to tempo. (Hardly anyone does. But I heard a recording by Beveridge Webster years ago that was up-to-tempo, extraordinarily powerful, and completely convincing.)

In astronomer Fred Hoyle's novel "The Black Cloud", the English pianist Ann Halsey plays the Opus 106 for the Black Cloud that is encircling the sun. The cloud, an extremely intelligent, normally intergalatic creature, on hearing the "Hammerklavier", the first music that it has ever experienced, responds: "Very interesting. Please repeat the first part at a speed increased by thirty per cent." Do you hear that, Mr. Kempff?

If you are looking for a fine CD-set of the late Beethoven sonatas, get the Solomon set.